Chapter 1
I tapped my fingers lightly across the table and my mother sighed, "I cannot deal with this any longer Bella."
Surprised, I raised my eyes to her face, she looked exhausted. She had spent seventeen years trying to open up to me and I never gave her an inch, I knew how much it hurt her but I just never could seem to stop. I didn't understand what she meant?
Seeing my confusion, a small smile graced her face but I could see the desperation and the sadness behind her eyes.
Her eyes fell back to her plate of untouched food as she struggled with what to say. Phil cleared his throat next to her and gently squeezed her shoulder, "Bella, I accepted a job offer in New York and I asked your mother to come with me." I looked back at my mother trying to read her expression, was she really leaving me?
She kept her eyes downcast so I leaned across to touch her hand but she quickly pulled away as if she'd been burned, "Say something Bella! Don't you have anything to say about this?" I pulled my hand back into my lap and I could feel my eyes stinging with the threat of tears.
"Bella, I'm going with Phil to New York but I can't take you with me. That's why I asked your father if you could stay with him until you graduate. You're not getting any better Bella and I can't keep trying", her last few words spoken between sobs.
I glanced back up to her face to find that Phil had wrapped a comforting arm around her but her tear-filled gaze was on me, "I think this will be good for you Bella. The last time you spoke was the day you moved here, perhaps going back to Forks and to your father might help you get better."
She looked at me expectantly as if awaiting my reply, I hated disappointing her every time she made that face but I knew I wouldn't reply. After a minute of waiting, she sighed and stood up and began clearing the table, "I've booked you a flight for Friday honey. That will give you the weekend to settle into Forks before you start school there."
With that she left the room, Phil following shortly after.
It was Monday, which gave me about four days to leave my life here in Phoenix behind.
Most teenagers might have fought against their mother, maybe thrown a tantrum or two, slammed a door or even refused to go. How could anyone expect a teenager to just up and leave their friends and their life?
But I'm not like other teenagers, from the day I was born I could never connect with people which left me socially awkward and afraid of any social situations. When I was eight, my parents divorced and my mother took me to Phoenix with her, as soon as I left I never spoke another word, not that I really spoke much before. My mother has spent years trying to get me to open up, be the daughter she always wanted who would go shopping with her, who she could spoil; she never knew she'd end up with a socially awkward mute.